JetBlue TrueBlue - Are Jet Blue flights typically late?

I joined JetBlue's True Blue program and have been flying them once a month for December, January, February, and now March. Their airfares are great but my flights always seem to be delayed......

December 25 - ROC/JFK - mid-morning - 1 hour late. Not much of a problem. Didn't pay attention if any reason given why the delay.

December 27 - JFK/ROC - early afternoon - 2.5 hours late. All flights except mine were running about 1 - 1.5 hours late. It's sunny in NYC, and gate agent first tells me there will be a 'weather related' delay. I very politely wonder why none of the other flights were as behind as my flight. Agent looks further and reports that my plane had to re-route for an ill passenger.

January 26 - RSW/JFK - all 3 flights had 2 to 3 hours delays. Northeast weather, although in RSW I don't seem to see other delays as significant for other airlines.

February 10 - ROC/JFK - 6:00 am flight becomes 7:00 am. Reason given: de-icing took longer than expected.

February 10 - JFK/LGB - flight leaves late, arrives about 1 hour late - strong headwinds announcement.

February 16 - LGB/JFK - announcment made that plane coming in from Boston had to stop to refuel due to strong headwinds. Our flight to JFK then leaves 2.5 hours late. Pilot announces lateness is 'partially weather related'. At end of flight, FA tells me to run to ROC gate in case they hold the plane for me. I run - gate agents laugh at me when I ask about ROC flight. Plane long gone.

Feb. 16 - JFK/ROC - wait 2 hours to get last flight to ROC. Plane bound for ROC late arriving JFK by about 1 hour. Plane then held for 4 passengers coming in from FLL. Sit on runway for awhile, as it's about midnight and JFK now only has 1 runway open for both arriving/departing.

March 26 - ROC/JFK - 7:15 pm flight leaves at 9:15. Storms in FL.

March 28 - JFK/ROC - 3:15 pm flight finally departs around 5:50 pm. Storms in FL.

Question: From others' experiences, are Jet Blue flights typically late? :confused:

You sure can pick 'em. Ive never been delayed with jetBlue.. and I fly them at least 4-5 times a month. Im always early or on time.

I noticed 6 of the instances you mentioned though, B6 couldn't control, de-icing, headwinds.. ill passengar..storms in florida..

Normally jetBlue leads the country with best on Time record, except for January, I believe the winter weather in NY messed up their whole network.

I fly JetBlue on the West Coast and have never had a problem.

Chalk it up to bad luck. I fly JFK-ROC a lot and had my first substantial delay on that route last Fridat night--about an hour due to late incoming aircraft from Florida.

They do rank in the Top 3 in on-time performance and I've maybe had 2-3 delays in the 100 or so trips Ive taken on them. And one was during the blizzard in NYC last year and the other the blackout of august 2003. We still left though--albeit late when other airlines had cancelled their whole schedules.

The headwind/refueling issue is the one issue that is fundamental to JetBlue in the sense that it is a problem that is unique to JetBlue, because of their aircraft choice. The A320 can't handle a westbound transcon under strong headwinds.

The other problems sound like things you'd find on any other airline.

Before my wife and I married, she lived in DC and I was in Los Angeles. We did the Friday-Sunday flights all the time. I think 1 in 3 was late, and usually, it was the flight that was heading towards LA that was tardy.

Thanks for your replies. I will attribute the delays I've experienced to the Northeast winter months along with some bad luck thrown into the delay equation.

I used to fly jfk-fll on an weekly basis and what I did notice was that as it got later in the day, their would tend to be planes not leaving on time from sort of a ripple effect from any dealys that happened during the day. Keep in mind Jetblue basically has the planes on its high freequency routes loading and going all day, so any delay in a given flight can easilly be reflected in the next flight out.

On April 28 my jetBlue departure from Seattle to JFK was delayed from midnight to 3:30am due to late arrival of the aircraft. Needless to say, the free potato chips and chocolate cookies were no solace at 3am PST when we were facing a red, red eye return to NY. :o

Of the 19 carriers tracked by the DOT, JetBlue ranks in last place overall for the past 3 months for on-time performance (% of arrivals within 15 minutes of schedule).

March '05

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES S/V/ 90.5
SKYWEST AIRLINES S/ 82.6
AMERICA WEST AIRLINES S/ 81.8
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES S/ 80.3
UNITED AIRLINES S/ 79.5
INDEPENDENCE AIR S/ 79.1
AMERICAN AIRLINES S/ 78.8
ATA AIRLINES S/ 78.6
COMAIR S/ 78.2
AMERICAN EAGLE AIRLINES S/ 78.1
NORTHWEST AIRLINES S/ 76.6
EXPRESSJET AIRLINES S/ 76.3
DELTA AIRLINES S/ 75.6
ALASKA AIRLINES S/ 73.8
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES S/ 72.9
ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST S/ 71.7
US AIRWAYS S/ 68.5
AIRTRAN AIRWAYS S/ 67.4
JETBLUE AIRWAYS S/ 63.3

Report also showed that 10.2% of JetBlue's flights were chronically late (<30% on-time).

JAN-MAR 2005

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES S/V/ 93.0
SKYWEST AIRLINES S/ 79.3
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES S/ 78.6
ATA AIRLINES S/ 77.5
INDEPENDENCE AIR S/ 77.4
AMERICA WEST AIRLINES S/ 76.7
AMERICAN AIRLINES S/ 76.2
UNITED AIRLINES S/ 75.9
CONTINENTAL AIRLINES S/ 75.8
NORTHWEST AIRLINES S/ 75.2
DELTA AIRLINES S/ 75.2
COMAIR S/ 74.8
EXPRESSJET AIRLINES S/ 74.4
AMERICAN EAGLE AIRLINES S/ 74.2
ALASKA AIRLINES S/ 72.9
US AIRWAYS S/ 70.2
AIRTRAN AIRWAYS S/ 68.8
ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST S/ 68.2
JETBLUE AIRWAYS S/ 65.8

Source http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/reports/2005/0505atcr.pdf

Of the 19 carriers tracked by the DOT, JetBlue ranks in last place overall for the past 3 months for on-time performance (% of arrivals within 15 minutes of schedule).


WOW. This is quite troubling.

However I looked at that source document and found out some interesting info. B6 ran a 84.3% (ranked 3rd) Q2 2004; 79.1% (ranked 9th) Q3 2004; & a 80.3% (ranked 5th) Q4 2004. So for them to run a 65.8 for Q1 is very odd. When I dug further I found that B6 ran a 66.9% at BOS (industry 71.2% avg) a 49.5% at FLL (industry 55.8% avg) and a 60.9 at JFK (industry 68.8 avg). It is now easy to see how they stunk this quarter as those 3 stations are greater than 50% of their flights. When I looked at the section which explains causes of delays the "National Aviation System Delay" column was 14.1% (of total flights) which was second highest to CO while the industry average was 8%.

Overall a disappointing quarter however I expect the carrier to rebound as it appears much of the problems were out of their hands. I hope to see a much better second quarter (especially on JFK-TPA as I have 3 RT bookedin the next 2 months.)

WOW. This is quite troubling.

However I looked at that source document and found out some interesting info. B6 ran a 84.3% (ranked 3rd) Q2 2004; 79.1% (ranked 9th) Q3 2004; & a 80.3% (ranked 5th) Q4 2004. So for them to run a 65.8 for Q1 is very odd. When I dug further I found that B6 ran a 66.9% at BOS (industry 71.2% avg) a 49.5% at FLL (industry 55.8% avg) and a 60.9 at JFK (industry 68.8 avg). It is now easy to see how they stunk this quarter as those 3 stations are greater than 50% of their flights. When I looked at the section which explains causes of delays the "National Aviation System Delay" column was 14.1% (of total flights) which was second highest to CO while the industry average was 8%.

Overall a disappointing quarter however I expect the carrier to rebound as it appears much of the problems were out of their hands. I hope to see a much better second quarter (especially on JFK-TPA as I have 3 RT bookedin the next 2 months.)


How? They underperformed at bad performing airports. They were below average at Boston, well below average at JFK, and below average at FLL.

ontime is clearly an issue at jetBlue. They need to grow slower and get their act together or their problems will increase and filter to other parts of the operation.

How? They underperformed at bad performing airports. They were below average at Boston, well below average at JFK, and below average at FLL.

ontime is clearly an issue at jetBlue. They need to grow slower and get their act together or their problems will increase and filter to other parts of the operation.

Correct, they underperformed by about 6% at those 3 airports while there "National Aviation System Delay" was 6% above average. Seems to be a wash.

April 2005 results are out: on-time performance was 77.0 percent.

Correct, they underperformed by about 6% at those 3 airports while there "National Aviation System Delay" was 6% above average. Seems to be a wash.

April 2005 results are out: on-time performance was 77.0 percent.

It still means that almost 1 in 4 flights was late, albeit better than the first 3 months of 2005. How does that compare to other airlines in April?

Correct, they underperformed by about 6% at those 3 airports while there "National Aviation System Delay" was 6% above average. Seems to be a wash.

I'm not sure how much faith to put into the breakdown of delays by cause. The sum of the categories adds up to the % delayed, so apparently the carrier can only select one delay code per flight. Recently had a flight (not on JetBlue) where "airline related" delay turned into "national aviation system" delay because ATC hold was implemented while they were fixing plane. Flight status listed delay as "schedule change due to weather" (a few probably know which airline uses this terminology). Point is flight would have been on-time without mechanical. Anyway, wonder how honest the airlines are when reported causes of delays...

I 've just returned from a quick New Orleans - JFK Roundtrip. Outgoing flight was delayed 7 hours, Return flight delayed 2 1/2 hrs. In both cases arrival at destination was in the 3-4am range. BRUTAL. In both cases I suspect this lean airline depends on their same planes flying the same shuttle all day long, delays early in the day compound.

What troubles me even more than my 3am arrivals, is that in both cases I checked online before leaving for the airport to see if there was a delay. In both cases the website was still reporting an on time departure as the gate informed me of a delay. Did I need to sit at the airport for 7 hours? NO.

I have noted with interest a dramatic increase in on time complaints in this thread recently.

A family member flew Jet Blue yesterday a.m. - ROC/JFK. Flight was on time w/departure and arrival. During the boarding process my relative said she never has seen this to such an extent - the flight attendants kept encouraging the passengers to: "Hurry up and get out of the aisles and sit down." "The sooner everyone is seated the sooner we can go." "Hurry everyone, we really need you all to get out of the aisles and sit down.". Also the pilot came on the speaker system 3 times and (nicely) requested that the passengers get out of the aisles and quickly sit down.

My family member said it really was pretty comical to watch how clueless and slooooow some of the passengers were, so she was happy the flight crew stepped in to push things along. When looking for ways to improve an on-time record, start with planting passengers in their seats ASAP - I like it!

- the flight attendants kept encouraging the passengers to: "Hurry up and get out of the aisles and sit down." "The sooner everyone is seated the sooner we can go." "Hurry everyone, we really need you all to get out of the aisles and sit down."
We need more of this from flight attendants. Some people take forever to get situated.

Only time I've been on a flight where the flight attendents were pushing people to sit down was on a US Airways flight that was the last flight of the night on Easter weekend ... the crew was in danger of exeeding their allowable work hours if we didnt pull back from the gate ASAP ... lol ... they kept telling people if they didnt hurry up we werent going anywhere ... they finally got everyone seated and pulled back from the gate with less than 5 minutes to spare ... at which point they finished loading all the baggage.

Anywho, back on topic ... I recent ran another roundtrip BUF to RSW on B6 ... the BUF to JFK flight was on time, but the remaining 3 legs all ran late. I've flown that route roundtrip 5 times in the past month and every leg between JFK & RSW has been late for one reason or another.

I've never flown JetBlue and would much like to sometime; unfortunately they do not service the markets I fly.

With respect to the NYC area, some of my flights include Continental via EWR, Delta via JFK, and connections between NW & KLM at JFK. Most of my flights via JFK are international to domestic or domestic to international, with the exception of a few times where I used JFK as my final destination/origin airport for NYC. With respect to Newark/EWR, most of my flights again are domestic to international or vice-versa; at times I use EWR as my final destination because of NJ Transit access into NYC or South into NJ. Also use LGA for NYC.

Now, with respect to Jet Blue being late I noticed they are second to Continental when it comes to Air Traffic Control / Flow reasons. CO operates a hub at EWR, which would explain their placement on the list (and yes, I'm used to chronically delayed flights arriving and departing EWR).

Looking at JetBlue schedules, it seems they like to do quick turns - if you combine that with the Air Traffic congestion of the entire NYC area and the resulting ATC delays, I believe this accounts for a good percentage of the delays, keeping in mind once they fall behind schedule early in the day it only gets worse later in the day (snowball effect).

To complicate things, especially in the evening or if wx exists in the area, JFK, along with EWR & LGA and sometimes "ZNY" which is New York Air Route Traffic Control Center start Air Traffic Control traffic management programs.

These programs can range from a "ground stop", meaning departures to JFK from nearby airports are held on the ground until released at a specific time; this allows current arrivals to clear the airspace (if you were to depart, you would circle, burn fuel, and still be delayed - but also take up airspace in an already crowded area). Additionally there are "Ground Delay" programs which are similar in nature along with traffic management programs which affect actual departures at JFK.

With the evening rush, which also includes inbound European international arrivals (and departures), things can get busy and a ROC-JFK flight may be ATC delayed to allow the international arrivals to land which have been airborne for 7+ hrs and need to land at JFK.

Despite the ATC problems, I feel JFK is the best managed NYC airport of the three. Even though I may be delayed, once the flight is ready to go there usually are not long waits for depature compared to EWR or LGA. Things seem to run more smoothly on the ground.

In closing, when I travel overseas and have a choice between EWR or JFK (LGA is domestic only, other than Canada) to make a connection, I prefer JFK. Also, NYC & the east coast has had it's share of weather problems this spring going into the summer. With time, perhaps B6 can address some of these problems. Having a couple of spare A320s at JFK may prove helpful, providing they don't already keep spares (spares cost money and don't make money if not in the air w/pax, but they can also greatly improve operations by being swapped in to handle delayed flights; i.e. aircraft scheduled for JFK-ROC is still in FLL, toss a spare on instead of taking a 3 hr delay).

Cheers,

SDF_Traveler